Here are three further first day covers from my mother-in-law’s collection, grouped together not merely because each one intrigues me, but rather because, warped soul that I am, each reminds me of a tragedy of some kind.

The first celebrates the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Ranier on April 19, 1956. But when I first came across it in the lock box, I thought not of that wedding, but of Kelly’s fatal 1982 automobile accident.

Hey, I never said I wasn’t morbid.

Next up is a May 31, 1936 envelope which is marked as having been flown “via FIRST FLIGHT of ZEPPELIN HINDENBURG.”

Knowing me as you do, would it surprise you to learn that upon seeing that typing, my mind immediately leapt to the final flight of same, which occurred the following year at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station?

Oh, the humanity!

Finally, here’s a reference to a disaster which might seem more obscure—a first day cover commemorating the terrible fate of the SS Morro Castle.

Not as well known a shipwreck perhaps as either the Titanic or the Luisitania, it’s still memorable for its unique end.

On the way from Havana to New York, the ship caught fire on September 8, 1934, and became beached off the shore near Asbury Park, New Jersey. Its abandoned hulk remained on display for many months until it was finally towed away and sold for scrap.

The cachet for this first day cover was issued by a local pharmacist on the day of the September 23rd memorial services for the 137 dead.

So—three first day covers, three tragedies. As the Postmaster once said to the Poet, I had not thought death had undone so many.